Occasions for Rejoicing
Commentary
Since the Fourth Sunday in Lent has been historically identified as Laetare (Rejoicing Sunday), it is most appropriate that the lessons collectively testify to a theme for which we can rejoice — God saves us by his grace!
Joshua 5:9-12
The First Reading is drawn from one of the so-called post-Pentateuch Historical books. This one tells the story of Israel’s successful settlement in Canaan. It shares the theological perspective of Deuteronomy and its stress on the Mosaic Torah, characterized by the typical Jewish tension between Yahweh’s mercy or election and a conditional view of salvation being dependent on what Israel does. Consequently, the Book is likely a 7th-century BC work, though with roots in earlier local traditions about Israel’s settlement.
The assigned verses offer an account of the first Passover spent by the Hebrews in the Promised Land. Yahweh is reported to have said to Joshua that he had rolled away from the Hebrews the disgrace of Egypt (v.9). Commemorating the Passover in the Holy Land is described (v.10). Apparently, the people had begun to farm the land and when that happened, the manna from heaven that had fed them ceased (vv.11-12).
There is plenty of slavery left in our world to address. The UN’s International Labor Organization reports that 40 million people are enslaved — 25 million in forced labor and 15 million in forced marriage. Slaves are found in the US, as high perhaps as 400,000. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center reports 4,000 cases of human trafficking, and the numbers are likely higher. Then there is the slavery associated with social class. Contrary to the myth of American social mobility, the U.S. Census Bureau found that where you grow up is a determining factor in social mobility. If you take two children from impoverished families, and one is able to leave a below-average neighborhood, the child growing up in the more upwardly-mobile neighborhood on the average will make $200,000 more in a lifetime than his old friend who remained in the tough neighborhood. An NYU Study found that the kind of job your father had impacts your job prospects. Slavery, keeping people in their “place,” is very much alive today. Our lesson reminds us that we have a God who will not abide by his people suffering in these circumstances. With our Jewish friends we celebrate a God who has not let injustice stand, who chooses the enslaved. This text invites us to place more emphasis on this theme and to encourage action of the faithful to work to change the dynamics supporting injustice and slavery in the surrounding community. Easter is a Passover Word!
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
This reading is part of Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthian church aiming to address deteriorating relations. Chapters 10-13 are so different in style form the first chapters as to lead many scholars to conclude that they constitute the “severe letter” mentioned in 2:4.
These verses are part of Paul’s discourse on reconciliation. He begins by urging that from now on we regard no one from a human point of view. He adds that though we once knew Christ only from such a viewpoint, no longer will we know him that way (v.16). The reference here seems to be to knowing Christ as risen and not as the one put to death. Paul proceeds to assert that anyone in Christ is a new creation, that the old has passed away (v.17). He speaks of the newness coming from God who reconciled us to him and has given us the ministry of reconciliation (v.18). It is noted that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself and not counting trespasses against us and entrusting the ministry of reconciliation to us (v.19). This makes us ambassadors for Christ, Paul adds, for God is making his appeal through us. Paul thus entreats readers to be reconciled to God on behalf of Christ (v.20). He also notes that for our sake God made Christ be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God (v.21).
Image means everything in America today. It’s what gets you elected, what gets you the promotion. Social analyst Christopher Lasch pointed out decades ago, that in our feel-good, therapeutic ethos, if you own and ostentatiously display the right products, get people to notice you, project being a “winner,” then success is likely in view, with or without notable accomplishments (The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, esp. pp.6-7,29-30,40-41). Our President is a “poster boy” for these dynamics.
The Second Reading offers a different perspective on Jesus and on life. No longer do our failures matter. We are somebodies, even ambassadors for Christ and righteous people, despite our shortcomings, our seeming ordinariness, and even our deficiencies in self-promotion. What we are to be is on the way! It’s time for us and the world to stop looking at things from a human, all-too narcissistic point of view. On the first Easter Jesus has made it happen. There’s lots to celebrate.
Luke 15:1-3,11b-32
The Gospel is once again drawn from the first part of a two-part history of the church, traditionally attributed to Luke, a physician and Gentile associate of Paul (Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon). Along with Acts, the author’s intention was to stress the universal mission of the church (Acts 1:8). In this lesson Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son is provided, a teaching with no parallels in the other Gospels.
The lesson begins with the notation Jesus was surrounded by tax collectors and sinners. Consequently, he is criticized by the Pharisees for the company he is keeping (vv.1-2). The story of the man with two sons unfolds. The younger receives his share of the father’s property and departs, eventually squandering all the wealth (vv.11-13). In need, working as a field hand feeding pigs (a shameful impure undertaking for a Jew), he resolves to return to his father to seek forgiveness (vv.14-20a). His father sees him and welcomes him home (v.20b). The son apologizes, saying he is no longer worthy to be the father’s son, but the father initiates a celebration on the grounds that his “dead” son is alive (vv.21-24). The elder son heard all this and learned his brother had returned and his father had initiated a celebration (vv.25-27). He is angered and refuses to join the celebration (v.28). The dutiful son confronts his father, reminding him that he had worked like a slave for the father and never disobeyed, yet his father had never held a celebration for him and his friends (v.29). His father responds that his eldest had been with him and all that he has is the son’s. A celebration was in order because the eldest son’s brother who was dead has now come to life (vv.31-32).
Americans think of themselves as hardworking. That’s why the Prodigal Son story seems so unfair to many of us. You should get what you deserve. Now it is debatable whether the American work ethic is declining. (A 2016 Bloomberg Poll found that 27% of Americans think it is.) But there is general agreement that the quality of service in most businesses is down. In light of these perceptions, maybe we are not as hard working, not as deserving of what we think we have earned after all. It may be that we are more like the Prodigal Son than we want to admit, getting things we don’t deserve. When it come to the gifts of God it’s a no-brainer. It’s good that God does not give us what we deserve (or we’d all be going to hell). So remember when God welcomes to his Kingdom those who have done less for the church than we have, that maybe we haven’t done as much in the congregation, as much for God, as we like to think we have. An attitude like that is sure to make us and our churches a lot more welcoming to everyone.
All the lessons testify to our need of God’s intervention, to our need for grace to set things right. And since they all testify to the fact that God has or will bring about what he promises, sermons for this day are clearly occasions for rejoicing.
Joshua 5:9-12
The First Reading is drawn from one of the so-called post-Pentateuch Historical books. This one tells the story of Israel’s successful settlement in Canaan. It shares the theological perspective of Deuteronomy and its stress on the Mosaic Torah, characterized by the typical Jewish tension between Yahweh’s mercy or election and a conditional view of salvation being dependent on what Israel does. Consequently, the Book is likely a 7th-century BC work, though with roots in earlier local traditions about Israel’s settlement.
The assigned verses offer an account of the first Passover spent by the Hebrews in the Promised Land. Yahweh is reported to have said to Joshua that he had rolled away from the Hebrews the disgrace of Egypt (v.9). Commemorating the Passover in the Holy Land is described (v.10). Apparently, the people had begun to farm the land and when that happened, the manna from heaven that had fed them ceased (vv.11-12).
There is plenty of slavery left in our world to address. The UN’s International Labor Organization reports that 40 million people are enslaved — 25 million in forced labor and 15 million in forced marriage. Slaves are found in the US, as high perhaps as 400,000. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center reports 4,000 cases of human trafficking, and the numbers are likely higher. Then there is the slavery associated with social class. Contrary to the myth of American social mobility, the U.S. Census Bureau found that where you grow up is a determining factor in social mobility. If you take two children from impoverished families, and one is able to leave a below-average neighborhood, the child growing up in the more upwardly-mobile neighborhood on the average will make $200,000 more in a lifetime than his old friend who remained in the tough neighborhood. An NYU Study found that the kind of job your father had impacts your job prospects. Slavery, keeping people in their “place,” is very much alive today. Our lesson reminds us that we have a God who will not abide by his people suffering in these circumstances. With our Jewish friends we celebrate a God who has not let injustice stand, who chooses the enslaved. This text invites us to place more emphasis on this theme and to encourage action of the faithful to work to change the dynamics supporting injustice and slavery in the surrounding community. Easter is a Passover Word!
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
This reading is part of Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthian church aiming to address deteriorating relations. Chapters 10-13 are so different in style form the first chapters as to lead many scholars to conclude that they constitute the “severe letter” mentioned in 2:4.
These verses are part of Paul’s discourse on reconciliation. He begins by urging that from now on we regard no one from a human point of view. He adds that though we once knew Christ only from such a viewpoint, no longer will we know him that way (v.16). The reference here seems to be to knowing Christ as risen and not as the one put to death. Paul proceeds to assert that anyone in Christ is a new creation, that the old has passed away (v.17). He speaks of the newness coming from God who reconciled us to him and has given us the ministry of reconciliation (v.18). It is noted that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself and not counting trespasses against us and entrusting the ministry of reconciliation to us (v.19). This makes us ambassadors for Christ, Paul adds, for God is making his appeal through us. Paul thus entreats readers to be reconciled to God on behalf of Christ (v.20). He also notes that for our sake God made Christ be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God (v.21).
Image means everything in America today. It’s what gets you elected, what gets you the promotion. Social analyst Christopher Lasch pointed out decades ago, that in our feel-good, therapeutic ethos, if you own and ostentatiously display the right products, get people to notice you, project being a “winner,” then success is likely in view, with or without notable accomplishments (The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, esp. pp.6-7,29-30,40-41). Our President is a “poster boy” for these dynamics.
The Second Reading offers a different perspective on Jesus and on life. No longer do our failures matter. We are somebodies, even ambassadors for Christ and righteous people, despite our shortcomings, our seeming ordinariness, and even our deficiencies in self-promotion. What we are to be is on the way! It’s time for us and the world to stop looking at things from a human, all-too narcissistic point of view. On the first Easter Jesus has made it happen. There’s lots to celebrate.
Luke 15:1-3,11b-32
The Gospel is once again drawn from the first part of a two-part history of the church, traditionally attributed to Luke, a physician and Gentile associate of Paul (Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon). Along with Acts, the author’s intention was to stress the universal mission of the church (Acts 1:8). In this lesson Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son is provided, a teaching with no parallels in the other Gospels.
The lesson begins with the notation Jesus was surrounded by tax collectors and sinners. Consequently, he is criticized by the Pharisees for the company he is keeping (vv.1-2). The story of the man with two sons unfolds. The younger receives his share of the father’s property and departs, eventually squandering all the wealth (vv.11-13). In need, working as a field hand feeding pigs (a shameful impure undertaking for a Jew), he resolves to return to his father to seek forgiveness (vv.14-20a). His father sees him and welcomes him home (v.20b). The son apologizes, saying he is no longer worthy to be the father’s son, but the father initiates a celebration on the grounds that his “dead” son is alive (vv.21-24). The elder son heard all this and learned his brother had returned and his father had initiated a celebration (vv.25-27). He is angered and refuses to join the celebration (v.28). The dutiful son confronts his father, reminding him that he had worked like a slave for the father and never disobeyed, yet his father had never held a celebration for him and his friends (v.29). His father responds that his eldest had been with him and all that he has is the son’s. A celebration was in order because the eldest son’s brother who was dead has now come to life (vv.31-32).
Americans think of themselves as hardworking. That’s why the Prodigal Son story seems so unfair to many of us. You should get what you deserve. Now it is debatable whether the American work ethic is declining. (A 2016 Bloomberg Poll found that 27% of Americans think it is.) But there is general agreement that the quality of service in most businesses is down. In light of these perceptions, maybe we are not as hard working, not as deserving of what we think we have earned after all. It may be that we are more like the Prodigal Son than we want to admit, getting things we don’t deserve. When it come to the gifts of God it’s a no-brainer. It’s good that God does not give us what we deserve (or we’d all be going to hell). So remember when God welcomes to his Kingdom those who have done less for the church than we have, that maybe we haven’t done as much in the congregation, as much for God, as we like to think we have. An attitude like that is sure to make us and our churches a lot more welcoming to everyone.
All the lessons testify to our need of God’s intervention, to our need for grace to set things right. And since they all testify to the fact that God has or will bring about what he promises, sermons for this day are clearly occasions for rejoicing.
